Louisville makes Barack Obama's Final Four again

U of L coach Rick Pitino presents President Barack Obama with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat from the Cardinals’ basketball team on the national champions’ visit to the White House last July.(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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President Barack Obama joked during the Louisville basketball team's trip to the White House last July that the Cardinals were a team that "always played hard, that always worked together, that stayed focused on one singular goal — and that is to bust my bracket."

Should U of L repeat its national title, the Cardinals will have to go against Obama's pick again.

A season after he selected Indiana to beat coach Rick Pitino's team in the championship game, the President tabbed fellow No. 4 seed Michigan State over U of L for this year's title when filling out his bracket Wednesday on ESPN's SportsCenter.

"It's been a while since (Spartans coach Tom) Izzo won one, and he knows how to motivate folks," Obama told ESPN. "He knows how to coach."

But the Leader of the Free World also noted, "It's been a while since I've won my pool."

Obama's other Final Four teams are No. 1 seeds Florida and Arizona, of which he said are "not imaginative picks, but I think they're the right ones."

The Cardinals' path to the Final Four per Obama's picks includes victories over Manhattan, Saint Louis, Wichita State and Duke before meeting Arizona in the Final Four. Also in the stacked Midwest Region, he picked eighth-seeded Kentucky to lose to the No. 1 Shockers.

Obama has for the last six seasons provided a bracket to ESPN. On Friday, his women's picks will also be unveiled for the fifth season in a row.

The President's NCAA Tournament men's entry last season ranked 2,080,996 out of 8.15 million entries, good for the 74.4th percentile in ESPN's bracket challenge.

• Legendary U of L basketball coach Denny Crum and Obama have the same championship prediction — Spartans over Cardinals. Crum, who won a pair of national titles at U of L, lists Arizona and a surprise pick of New Mexico over Florida to win the South Region and make the Final Four in his picks submitted to The Courier-Journal.

• The Detroit Pistons tweeted out a photo this week of former U of L guard Peyton Siva's bracket. He has a final four of U of L, Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan State. The NBA rookie picked the Cardinals to repeat, beating Florida in the championship game.

• USA Today received bracket entires from a number NBA stars known for their heorics in March, including UK products John Wall and Anthony Davis, who both went on to become No. 1 draft picks. Wall has the Wildcats falling to Wichita State in the Round of 32 with the Shockers falling to Florida in the championship game. Davis stuck to his roots, picking UK as the champion over Michigan State.

• Horseman Doug O'Neill, the trainer for 2012 Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, imparted some of his west coast bias in his bracket sent to The Courier-Journal. He has U of L knocking off UCLA in the title game with other Final Four teams Virginia and Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have never won an NCAA Tournament game but made the field as an 11 seed.

• Attorney General Jack Conway also believes in the Cardinals. Conway picked U of L over UK in the Sweet 16, then has Pitino's team beating Duke and Wisconsin before knocking off Florida in the championship game. His other Final Four team is Michigan State.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.